1. USB pendrive that you are willing to over-write (lose all information). Even a very small one will do.

2. You will need a FAT partition somewhere on your “hard drive” (solid state drive, on the mini 9). Probably you already have one.

3. Go to the Dell support site, and get the DOS version of the BIOS update software. Put a copy of the file on your FAT partition, and make note of its file name. If you have more than one FAT partition, use the first one.

4. Go to the FREEDOS site, and get balder.img here:

http://www.freedos.org/freedos/files/

put this file in your home directory.

5. From Ubuntu, insert the USB pendrive. When it mounts, right-click to get its properties. Determine where it has mounted (probably /dev/sdb). In what follows, I will use “sdX” to refer to the USB. For best results, do not have any other writeable device connected to your computer.

6. Unmount the USB (leave it plugged in). In Terminal:

sudo dd if=balder.img of=/dev/sdX

7. Re-boot, and press 0 at the boot screen, to get the boot menu. Select “removable media” (your computer thinks the Balder USB is a floppy disk). When it boots, you will be in DOS, and see the A:> prompt.

8. Your computer must be on AC power, not battery. Change the volume to C: (which will be the FAT partition on the main drive). Then, type the BIOS updater file name:

A:>C:
C:>YOURBIOSFILENAME

9. Let the BIOS updater work. When it is done, the computer automatically reboots.

10. Your USB is not useful for anything else, while balder is there. To make balder go away:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX

and maybe re-format it.